Gov. Tom Wolf is renewing his push to raise Pennsylvania’s $7.25 minimum wage to what he calls a “living wage,” starting this July.

Wolf is proposing to increase the hourly minimum to $12 per hour this summer. He then would raise it by 50 cents an hour every year through 2025, when it would reach $15.

Thereafter, he is proposing the minimum wage be tied to the rate of inflation. Wolf said he will include his minimum wage pitch in his 2019-20 budget proposal, which he will introduce next week.

The governor tried and failed to convince lawmakers to raise the minimum wage in his first term and some business groups wasted no time rejecting Wolf’s new plan. In a new twist to his minimum wage proposal, Wolf intends to ask the General Assembly to eliminate the separate minimum wage for tipped workers that has been set at $2.83 an hour for 21 years.

“Pennsylvania has to be a place where hard work is rewarded,” Wolf said at a Capitol news conference on Wednesday. “But today too many people are working harder and harder and they still can’t afford basics like food, transportation and shelter. Despite working full-time, too many people need the help of public benefit programs to get by.”

Surrounding the governor at the news conference were Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a myriad of Democratic lawmakers and workers earning less than the $12 an hour he proposed. Wolf acknowledged that while no Republican lawmakers were present, he anticipates that his proposal will gain some bipartisan support.

“This affects us all,” he said.

According to the Keystone Research Center, this proposal would result in raises for 2.2 million Pennsylvanians who now earn less than $12 an hour. Wolf noted 29 states have increased their minimum wages since the commonwealth adjusted its rate to the federal minimum in 2009, when the federal minimum was last changed. At the beginning of 2019, 20 states raised their minimum wages.

Wolf maintained that raising the minimum wage would result in a savings of $36 million in Medicaid costs next year and $119 million the following year. He pledged to direct a portion of those savings into public assistance programs to provide a minimum wage of at least $12 per hour for workers who provide childcare and home care services for senior citizens and people with disabilities.

But representatives from organizations representing employers across Pennsylvania continue to oppose an increase in the minimum wage. They pushed back when Wolf tried to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour in 2015. Employers say the cost of raising the minimum wage is too great.

Just as proponents point to studies that dispel the negative impacts of a minimum wage hike, including a recent Bloomberg report that found modest increases implemented slowly over time don’t destroy jobs or hurt growth, opponents cite studies that back their position that job losses in the tens of thousands would result.

“The question is how many jobs are they comfortable eliminating from the economy,” said Alex Halper, director of government affairs for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. He further pointed out what the state’s Minimum Wage Advisory Board’s report for 2018 shows that workers having no children under age 18 of their own make up 93 percent of those earning the minimum wage or less.

Gordon Denlinger, state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses in Pennsylvania, said many small businesses simply can’t afford to pay entry-level and unskilled workers $15 an hour. Raising their prices to pay for the increased wage isn’t always an option.

“If there isn’t enough coming into the business to cover the added labor costs, those lower-level jobs disappear,” Denlinger said. “As a result, it’s much harder for those at the very bottom of the pay scale to ever find work.”

Sen. Tina Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, debunked that argument by pointing out doomsday scenarios such as that haven’t played out in Pennsylvania’s surrounding states that have boosted their minimum wage: New York is at $11.10; Maryland, $10.10; Delaware, $8.75; New Jersey, $8.85.

Turning to Wolf, she said, “Governor Wolf, I ask you since our neighbors are all raising the minimum wage. Do you see people flocking to Pennsylvania in search of jobs? I know I haven’t.”

With the latest version of the minimum wage hike that the governor is proposing, Tartaglione said affected workers would earn an additional $9.1 billion over the next five years.

Rep. Patty Kim, D-Dauphin County, who has been championing the minimum wage increase for six years, compared the stalemate over this issue to the partial federal government shutdown that recently ended.

Some argue it’s a job killer; others say it’s a job creator. Some say it will hurt low-level paid workers; others say it helps 2 million of them. While this goes on, Kim said, “The ones who suffer or are shut out are the people who are still working for $7.25 an hour. This impasse needs to end.”

Among those who gathered for the news conference were a home care worker who shared how she has trouble paying her rent, bills and groceries on the $10.50 an hour pay she earns. Another was a child care provider said she serves families who struggle with their low-paying jobs; she said she has trouble keeping employees at the pay levels she is able to pay.

A restaurant owner also spoke of the difficulties tipped employees have getting by. About that, Wolf said seven states have already moved to eliminate their separate minimum wage for tipped employees.

“A tipped wage is not fair to the workers who depend on tips,” Wolf said. “It’s not fair to all of us who are paying public benefits because these workers need public assistance.”

Keystone Research Center’s economists Stephen Herzenberg and Mark Price called this change long overdue.

But Halper sees it differently. Given the thin profit margins that the average restaurant experiences, he said this could create real hardship for restaurant owners.

“I think there is just a complete disconnect between these kind of feel-good policies espoused in Harrisburg and the realities on the ground for most Pennsylvania employers,” he said.

The chamber advocates instead lifting the earning levels of low-wage workers through job training programs and employing more targeted approaches such as implementing a state Earned Income Tax Credit to supplement the federal program, which reduces the tax liability for low- to moderate-income families.